Newsletter

Are We in Hell, Yet?

What do you think when you hear this news?

When Red State governors turn down the Medicaid expansion for their poorest people they turn down money from the federal government to pay for it - and that money is taxes YOU paid in but will not get back to help the economy in your state. You will continue to pay it in. You will continue to see it go to the blue states, who will continue to improve economically faster than red states because of YOUR tax money.

Do you let yourself think about that?

When those dollars (and it is a LOT of dollars) come into your state to help poor people have health insurance, some things happen in your state:

1. Your medical costs go down because you are not being charged by providers for the poor people's share of healthcare.

2. That money goes into your state, improving the economy for your state.

3. Truly sick people in your state who can't afford a doctor finally get relief. You may not care about that, so I put it last.

I only know one person in this situation but I have heard that there are many people on the waiting list in Kansas for Medicaid. They are finding out now that the Supreme Court changed Obamacare so that it allows a state to refuse to help the poorest of the poor if they want to. Governor Sam Brownback chose to refuse this help from your federal taxes to the poor of Kansas.

His excuse probably goes like this: You should not have to pay that tax to begin with.

But you do pay it and you will continue to pay it. That's a fact, Jack.

In a more perfect world, Governor Brownback would push to lower federal taxes in a way that did not hurt his own people. We all know about the $500 toilet seats that our defense system buys. Tackle that problem first before torturing the poor.

The one woman I know in this situation is severely disabled in a mental way. She cannot hold a job. Employers will not hire her, nor would they keep her because she cannot do the job. She should be on Medicaid but when she goes into the office and tries to talk to them they turn around and walk away from her. They refuse to tell her that she is turned down and they refuse to tell her she is accepted. She is in limbo. Her elderly parents who worked all their lives are trying to support her with their social security money and what they managed to save, plus very small pensions from their jobs. They are not in good health. But they love their child so they do what they have to do.

She was pretty excited about Obamacare. She checked with them as soon as possible. She was told that she's in a red state that refused to help her because the Supreme Court has allowed her state to refuse to help her. Therefore, she fell through the cracks. She accepted it with courage. She said, "I've never had health insurance, and now I know I never will have. That's how it is. I just feel sorry for my mom and dad who have always tried to help me."

"These are poor people. They mostly represent families making less than $20,000 per year. And yet in many cases, they greet the news that they're completely excluded from access to health care with weary acceptance. They probably never really believed that anything good might come their way in the first place. In the meantime, multi-millionaires can virtually bring the government of the United States to a screeching halt over the prospect of a 2 percent increase in the marginal rate they pay in income taxes.

The refusal of Republican states to accept Obamacare's Medicaid expansion surely ranks as one of the most sordid acts in recent American history. The cost to the states is tiny, and the help it would bring to the poor is immense. It's paid for by taxes that residents of these states are going to pay regardless of whether they receive any of the benefits. And yet, merely because it has Obama's name attached to it, they've decided that immiserating millions of poor people is worth it. It's hard to imagine a decision more depraved."